It’s funny how a single key to a one-bedroom unit can be an accessoria for relationships, and job opportunities to unfold. Billy Wilder’s The Apartment (1960) easily became one of my favorite first-watches this year, thanks to Richard who shared this masterpiece to our class in Advance Film Theory and Criticism.
Jack Lemmon’s CC Baxter is just like most of us, really. Baxter is a kind-hearted regular employee of an insurance company who takes his daytime working on the usual clerical work, and shares the 19th floor, the Ordinary Policy department, with 800 and more desktops. Baxter, like most of us, also waits for the rush hour to subside so he can avoid the Manhattan traffic. Bud, (a pet name his colleagues call him) then stay in his workspace for an extra hour or two to kill time. Half a block from the popular, well-loved, Central Park, stands Baxter’s apartment. He shares the building with a couple of middle to old-aged folks who are arguably nice to him.
In an ideal world, after the 8-hour hustle and the travel to and from work, the regular employee finally gets to rest. But it is different for CC Baxter. Some nights, his space transforms into a lodging flat (which would probably be listed in Airbnb if it were today) to accomodate his executive bosses’ (and their girlfriends and mistresses) pseudo-bachelor behavior. On nights and days where his personal space is borrowed, he also sometimes leaves a good wine, some crackers, and records for his guests to play. CC Baxter is undeniably an excellent host.
For his hospitability, the executives put a good word in until it reaches the Personnel Chief’s attention. Mr. Sheldrake (Frank Macmurray) then becomes a regular to the flat, even demanding Baxter to give him a duplicate of his apartment’s key. It is convenient at first—to Baxter who aspires to climb up in the corporate ladder also like many of us, lending your unit in exchange of a better office table, view, and salary, is a no-brainer… until he realizes that he and his regular tenant share something other than the apartment. Falling in love after riding elevator girl Fran Kubelik (Shirley Maclaine)’s elevator mostly everyday is the turning point of Baxter towards his realizations.
It is baffling how the 1960 Oscars Best Picture film can still be relevant today. It’s strange how familiar a romantic comedy film is, today. Like many of us, we also aspire to be promoted in our current job, and eventually be with our lovers at the end of a stressful day. The Apartment’s New York is also just the same, or maybe a little bit better than the New York today. Rushing cars, people, traffic lights and jams— they’re all still there. Wilder’s classic is undeniably still a must-watch at 2022, and feels how romantic comedies should feel like. Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s collaborative writing is a cinematic achievement to New Hollywood. The film’s direction is almost a perfect homage to theatre arts with its camera work and the ensemble’s blocking.
Oh, and have I mentioned how Nora Ephron might have been inspired by this when she wrote the 90s romcom staple, When Harry Met Sally? Maybe you should watch them consecutively. I will again, too. Romcoms with impeccable screenplay, like Wilder and Reiner’s, break the wall that separate romcom from other genres critics and film enthusiasts sometimes build.
